AN OCCASIONAL ORCHID

About the Show

Take a walk on the wild side with Zoe, a Malaysian cross-dresser and gardening enthusiast who sees life in London through false eyelashes. From monsoons in Malacca to steamy hothouses in Kew Gardens, An Occasional Orchid explodes the myth of a “good Chinese girl” and dishes the dirt on East-West relations in a fertile post-colonial garden. An unforgettable evening of intercultural horticultural wanderings in a Wonderbra!

Joe is a medical student in London, experiencing new freedoms half a world away from his Malaysian hometown and his parents' watchful eyes. An Occasional Orchid follows his transformation into Zoe, an exotic Asian transvestite, a beautiful flower of the East, meticulously constructed to please Bryan. Initially emboldened by the lustful white male gaze, Zoe embarks on an increasingly desperate search for love.

Slipping between illusion and reality, tragedy becomes self-realisation as she strips off the artifice constructed for Bryan and places a call to Malacca: "Hello? Mum? I've booked my flight. There's someone I'd like you to meet." New challenges await but Zoe has survived the eroticisation of the exotic, to dress up another day.

"Vivacious... Romped with buckets or promiscuity, pathos and personal insight into a twilight world... A gloriously triumphant return for Chowee and Zoe!"

Day & Night

About W!LD RICE

Founded in 2000 by our Founding Artistic Director, Ivan Heng, W!LD RICE is one of Singapore’s leading professional theatre companies. Our mission is to provide a forum for the shared experience of theatre; celebrating our diversity, reflecting on the problems and possibilities of our times, and presenting productions that inspire, challenge and entertain. W!LD RICE is a not-for-profit Singapore Registered Charity, (Institution of a Public Character No. 000122). It is a recipient of the National Arts Council's Major Grant.